Joshua was sitting inside the studio, leisurely sipping coffee. The aroma was incredibly pleasant.
He savored the deep scent of the beans as it brushed past the tip of his nose.
“Mmm, the new beans are good.”
At that, the producer sitting next to him let out a sigh of relief and said,
“I’m glad to hear that.”
The topliner and track maker sitting in a row beside him followed suit, exhaling sighs of relief.
They had been on edge, worried he might complain that he didn’t like the newly changed beans.
Indeed.
Joshua had always been that way. On days when he didn’t like the tracks they produced, he would find any excuse to throw a tantrum.
It started from the flavor of the coffee beans to there being too much dust. To the air being stale. Sometimes, he would even say their faces, unwashed from staying up all night, were an eyesore.
Of course.
If the song was good, they could get through the day safely.
However, since that was ultimately Joshua’s subjective judgment, trouble would often brew if a song was cut right before distribution. Thus, they had to put their lives on the line every time they made a track.
“Um, then, about today’s song…”
The producer, who had been gauging the mood, cautiously spoke up.
“Do you like it?”
Joshua gave a relaxed nod with a benevolent smile.
“Yeah, just keep it like this from now on. Then we won’t have to get upset with each other, right? How nice would that be?”
At his words, the others nodded awkwardly, forced smiles plastered on their faces.
‘Can’t we just… not get upset in the first place?’
Rowan, the producer who carried the heaviest burden among the three, thought to himself.
He knew he couldn’t let his guard down; there was no telling how long this peace would last.
‘Damn it, if it weren’t for the money…’
In truth, Rowan wanted to escape this dysfunctional group.
He, the topliner, and the track maker were the ones who actually created the music, but the one whose name was ultimately listed as the original creator was…
Only Joshua.
Furthermore, they had to seek approval while enduring condescension and contempt from Joshua, who knew nothing about composition.
It was a strange, deformed team structure.
However, there was only one reason he couldn’t leave.
Money.
He had worked as a producer with his team members for a long time, but no one recognized them.
He thought that if they kept trying, the world would eventually notice, but that was a hollow hope.
No one wanted to sing songs from an unknown team.
The world didn’t listen.
Conflicts began to arise among the team members, they frequently skipped meals, and in the end, they even considered leaving the industry.
That was when they met Joshua.
He proposed a condition: they would first release songs under his name, which had a decent reputation in the industry, and later he would release songs with their own names on them.
And of course.
He promised to pay them handsomely for the music production.
At the time, his hand was like salvation to Rowan.
Without knowing it was the hand of a devil, he had snatched it, and that had led him all the way to this point.
So, did things go well?
No. All three single albums released under Joshua’s name barely managed to break even.
Even then…
The blame was shifted onto Rowan and his team, and the promised pay was never delivered. They were given just enough money to barely survive while the verbal abuse continued.
But they were already caught in a trap they couldn’t escape.
The money was one thing, but…
Caught in the trap of a futile hope, that maybe one day, a song with their team’s name on it might actually be released, they continued to offer up their music to Joshua.
He didn’t know how long this would last, but…
“Anyway, shall I tell you something interesting?”
Joshua, completely unaware of what Rowan was thinking, chuckled excitedly.
“I told you the new CEO at UNICE released a song, right?”
“Ah… yes.”
“But he talked big about dropping his stage name and using his real name, and didn’t even do any promotion… Pfft, hahah.”
He seemed so amused that he couldn’t stop laughing mid-sentence, his shoulders shaking repeatedly.
“I mean, let alone the Billboard real-time charts, the whole world is practically silent! No one knows, no one! Hahaha.”
Until just a few days ago, he was the one who wouldn’t stop talking about how the new CEO of UNICE was the composer HS, and that if they became friends, they should learn how to make music from him…
“In the end, he was just leaning on the name HS. As Min Hyunseung, he’s a nobody.”
He didn’t know what had happened, but he seemed to find the failure of the new CEO’s solo album quite entertaining.
“Pfft, ha, hahaha, I knew it.”
The sight of him was quite bizarre and grotesque.
And it could be inferred that because Joshua was in a good mood, the song was able to pass.
‘I don’t know if I should be thanking that person or not.’
Of course, if some variable were to occur, Joshua would start nitpicking them all over again.
‘A variable…’
Rowan recalled the song by that person he had heard immediately upon its release. He was pondering whether a variable was likely to happen.
‘It’s a bit unfamiliar, but…’
It was a song that kept lingering in his ears. It had haunted him throughout his work to the point that he had quite a hard time.
Just then.
The topliner, who was looking at his phone, shouted, “Huh?” and everyone’s eyes turned toward him.
“What is it? What’s all the fuss?”
Joshua, annoyed that his laughter had been interrupted, narrowed his eyes and asked back.
“It’s in the news.”
“What is?”
“That HS changed his stage name…”
Joshua snatched the phone, asking what he was talking about, and checked the article.
[UNICE Music Group CEO and Veiled Composer HS, His Real Name Finally Revealed…]
[HS Announces Stage Name Change… “I Will Continue My Activities as a Composer Under My Real Name,” Direct Announcement]
[Composer Min Hyunseung’s Recently Released Solo Album, Sudden Spike in Streaming Counts… Spotify Currently Experiencing Connection Paralysis]
Apparently, judging by Joshua’s face, which crumpled like a piece of paper in an instant, a variable had indeed occurred.
Hyunseung visited the gym inside VINCIS for the first time in a while.
Clang! Bang!
The pieces of iron collided, creating an indistinguishable roar.
“Huff, huff…”
The mirrors were fogging up from the intense heat of the two men.
“I… I can’t do any more.”
“What do you mean you can’t?”
In the end, it was Hyunseung who collapsed onto the floor first.
Executive Director Park looked down at Hyunseung and scolded him.
Even then, his hands never stopped as he repeatedly lifted and lowered the dumbbells.
“Your mental strength has become so weak, that’s why your album didn’t do well! Get up right now!”
Hyunseung slowly lifted his upper body at Executive Director Park’s shouting.
“Who said it didn’t do well?”
He smirked and pulled his phone out of his pocket.
“Don’t look at your phone during a workout—huh?”
Executive Director Park, who was about to nag him, narrowed his eyes after seeing the news headlines on the screen.
“What is this?”
“I told you last time.”
Hyunseung added in a nonchalant tone, as if it were no big deal.
“If people don’t know there’s an awl in the pouch, you just have to make them put their hand in the pouch.”
“Did you personally reveal that Min Hyunseung is HS?”
“Yes. But it would look tacky if I announced it myself, so I used my head a bit.”
“How?”
“I have a talented informant; I couldn’t let him go to waste. I let it slip to the reporters through the informant.”
He then elaborated, as if reciting a scenario for a grand novel.
“I became a person whose name was revealed unwillingly because of one bad informant, but who nonetheless coolly accepted it and decided to continue activities under his real name.”
“Wow, you even took care of your image in the process? Since you haven’t been using your body lately, your brain is spinning quite fast, isn’t it?”
Despite Executive Director Park’s sarcasm, Hyunseung shrugged and replied,
“Well, it’s thanks to the hint Teacher Lee Duseok dropped.”
“Indeed, the elder didn’t reach that position for nothing.”
“No wonder you answered with such confidence last time. You pulled it off again.”
Executive Director Park patted Hyunseung’s shoulder as if he didn’t find him hateful.
Just glancing at the headlines, it was practically guaranteed that Hyunseung’s current album would chart on Billboard.
“That’s true, but I’m not satisfied yet.”
“Hey, if a club song attracts this much attention, it’s a success.”
“It’s not a club song, it’s High-End Fusion EDM.”
Hyunseung immediately reacted to the term “club song” and corrected him.
“All right, I get it. Now all you have to do is sit back and wait for it to climb the Billboard charts. What’s the problem?”
Executive Director Park asked back, patting his shoulder as if to soothe him.
“Just as you said, Director, it’s only a success if it’s played in clubs.”
“What? What does that mean now?”
“Imagine this song being played in clubs all over the world.”
Ah, maybe I shouldn’t have asked.
“More than anything…”
For some reason, the kid’s face had that “just about to cause trouble” expression.
“I also want to DJ this song myself in front of people.”
I knew it.
“How about the stage name ‘Firemark’?”
If you had to pick just one world-class DJ, people would undoubtedly say “Ferris” in unison.
However, Ferris herself didn’t feel that way.
“No, it’s not it!”
Her headset crashed to the floor with a violent gesture of her hand.
“Aaaaaah!”
Even so, her hands didn’t stop. Equipment was smashed, and trophies lined up on the display cabinet fell with a loud crash.
“There’s nothing, nothing…”
Only then did her hands move to her own hair.
She groaned, clutching her disheveled hair.
“What am I supposed to do if nothing comes out…”
The reason Ferris was writhing in such frustration was…
Because of the “expectations” toward her.
When people thought of Ferris, they spoke of her as a DJ and musician they could trust and listen to.
And for good reason; when she first started DJing, she gained popularity with her sophisticated DJ sets.
Thanks to that, she was able to travel to international clubs and festivals, making her name widely known to the world.
By chance, a house track she made herself became a hit, earning her recognition as a world-class DJ and musician.
But whether it was a stroke of luck or not, she had been struggling ever since, unable to release a noteworthy track.
She spent her time going around DJing with remixes of other people’s songs.
However.
Now, she couldn’t even do that. Her hands wouldn’t move. It wasn’t because she was sick and couldn’t move…
Her hands simply wouldn’t move whenever she stood in front of the DJ booth.
It was a disaster brought about by the pressure.
“Sigh…”
Ferris left the trashed studio and headed to the living room. Because listening to a song at times like this usually helped her calm down.
Just one song.
The one song she had made and the world had recognized.
Tap, tap, tap.
Only that song was uniquely contained in her playlist.
—♫♫♫
Naturally, she played the song and closed her eyes.
—♫♫♫
Soon, music flowed from the expensive speakers installed in the living room, as if thumping against her heart.
—♫♫♫
How many times had she listened to it on repeat?
“Haaa…”
When Ferris, having regained her composure, opened her eyes to operate her phone—
“Hmm?”
A text message arrived.
[I’m sending this because I thought it might help you.]
It was a text from an old friend.
‘Help?’
As soon as Ferris clicked the preview notification, another text arrived from her friend in succession, and a song was shared without any content.
Inadvertently.
Ferris, having added the song to her playlist, pressed the play button.
—♫♫♫
Not even a minute after the song started playing, Ferris’s hands slowly began to stir in the air.
Soon after.
Ferris sprang to her feet and ran back into the studio.
“Ah—!”
Looking at the trashed studio, she let out a scream.
She was deeply regretting her past actions, simply because she couldn’t try DJing that track right this second.
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